[1] Set in mid 1950s[2] England the novel follows Olive Piper as she leaves school and attends Bedford College, London to study English Literature.

The Drama Society puts a production of Dr Faustus where she meets Malcolm Crowley who is studying Dentistry at King's College London.

"[3] Malcolm Forbes in The Herald is also full of praise for Hill, "So well drawn is her heroine, and so keenly realized her predicaments and misfortunes, that we feel for her at every turn.

[4] In contrast Julie Myerson writing in The Guardian is unimpressed, "The prose is clompingly euphemistic, chattily cliche-ridden and bafflingly – for a writer who has given us so many satisfyingly subtle ghost stories – lacking in any attempt at subtext or ambiguity...The result is that the protagonist, for all her supposed truth and tact, never once springs to life, while peripheral characters – fumbling, dry-lipped boyfriend, sternly patronising male doctor – seem to have arrived straight from central casting.

"[2] Melissa Katsoulis of The Times writes "the brief section where Olive experiences that tragedy in the punishing confines of a home for unmarried mothers is unbearably sad and will make parents feel sick.